


a little sleight of hand

by starghost



Category: Octopath Traveler (Video Game)
Genre: During Canon, Gen, even my fluff has class issues, spoiler: kittens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:13:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23759659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starghost/pseuds/starghost
Summary: Therion has a strange habit of squirreling away food when he thinks no one is looking. Tressa worries about it.
Comments: 12
Kudos: 91





	a little sleight of hand

"I think this is serious," Tressa says, chewing her lip. "Once you pointed it out to me I noticed it almost like every night, and it's weird. It's weird, and I don't like it."

"It's a harmless habit," Primrose says. They're newly arrived in Noblecourt, having what Tressa thinks is a very important discussion while Therion is off snooping about a ruby dragonstone. "And it's not weird. You're just lucky."

Tressa wrinkles her nose, like she does when called young or kiddo or green pea. She thinks of herself as what she will be, a soon-to-be worldly merchant, not what she is, but mostly no one else does. Wrinkling her nose like that doesn't help. She huffs and sits back at the table for a second. 

"But doesn't he know we wouldn't let him go hungry? Why's he gotta squirrel away food like that?" Tressa asks. 

"It doesn't hurt anyone, sweetie, I wouldn't worry," Primrose says, with that worldly calm she has. Like everything they've gone through pales in comparison to something she won't tell Tressa about. When they met, both she and Therion had only told Tressa enough about themselves to make her even more fiendishly curious, and then clammed up. More than enough to get Tressa to follow along, hoping for an interesting story for her journal. 

What else is she going to do? In the absence of any real information, Tressa worries.

Tressa worries enough that she starts keeping track. Not in her journal where she records her travels, but at the back of the notebook where she records her purchases and sales. On the very last page she starts a list, in which she keeps track of the times she notices Therion slipping food from his plate. Into his sleeve? Into a napkin? All she knows is there's a sleight of hand and the food disappears but not into his mouth. It's almost always at dinner, not at any other meal, though sometimes they don't take all their meals together. Which means Tressa's list can't be comprehensive, but she does her level best.

> _Noblecourt: 2/4 nights_
> 
> _Stillsnow: 5/5 nights_
> 
> _Flamesgrace: 3/7 nights_
> 
> _Victor's Hollow: 2/2 nights_

Two nights in Bolderfall leads to two mental checkmarks in Tressa's ledger. While Therion goes off to check on something he won't name (Tressa suspects it's the thief's treasure he's vaguely hinted at), Tressa decides to engage Primrose again, and their new companion. Primrose has been distracted but unwilling to talk about it or explain why she didn't go immediately back to Noblecourt when the man with the crow tattoo told her to look for answers there. Their search for him said a lot more about Primrose than Primrose herself had. Maybe Primrose will be interested in Tressa's observations now, she thinks.

"He never does it when we're on the road," Tressa is saying as they look for an inn with vacant beds. She has to explain everything to Ophilia, the cleric from Flamesgrace, who listens solemnly. When Tressa finishes, she only shakes her head a little and says, with resignation, "Oh, yes."

"What is with you two," Tressa says with exasperation.

"You always had a home, Tressa," Ophilia says. "You never learned to worry like this."

"Ugh," Tressa says, slumping. She knows that Ophilia is right but that's not good enough.

Later, as they head to the pub to meet Therion, Ophilia seems to be mulling something over. She's picking at a loose stitch on her sleeve and focusing on nothing in particular while they walk. "Perhaps..." she says, "perhaps we should say something..."

"Don't," Primrose says, and keeps discouraging them until Therion arrives. None of them say a thing about it while they eat, but instead discuss their plans or, in Tressa's case, the interesting things she spotted while scouting shops. Therion tells them that he'll have to wait a day to see the Ravus woman, for some reason he can't explain. When they say they found rooms near an herbalist, he says that should be safe enough for them, and he'd find them later.

"What do you mean?" Tressa asks.

He stares at her with an expression that she's pretty sure means she's being stupid, then slowly says, "I... was living here... before."

"Oh!" Tressa laughs at her own silliness. Ophilia nudges her slightly, and they share a glance. But Tressa isn't sure she wants to ask, not now.

So Ophilia does.

"Therion," she starts, and folds her hands in her lap. She tries not to look at him too intently. "You know between us, we have plenty of leaves to spare for food."

"If you don't like me stealing, look the other way," he says.

"It's not that," Ophilia says. Then, "Well, there is that. But that's not what I mean."

"What do you mean?" he asks, an edge coming into in his voice.

Ophilia backs off. "That we don't need to skimp in town. I think they had rice pudding, shall we get some?" she asks.

Later, Tressa marks another night off in her ledger as Therion covertly makes a half-eaten chicken leg disappear. After her third cider at dinner, but before they all leave, Tressa makes a decision. She will follow Therion. She whispers it to Primrose when Therion has left the table for a minute.

"He will absolutely notice you," Primrose says. Then she looks thoughtful. "You're not going to let this go, are you?" Tressa puts on as serious a face as she can and shakes her head. Primrose says, "We're here tomorrow night too. Don't drink as much. I'll help."

Primrose is true to her word. The next night, Therion disappears an untouched chicken leg. Things are escalating, Tressa thinks. In every other town it had only been tiny scraps. Here, it was full-on snack portions. She tugs at Primrose's scarf when it happens, and Primrose ignores her. But after, in the dark, Primrose silently directs Tressa through the streets. Ophilia said a third person would make them more obvious a shadow, but she'd be at the inn if they needed her after. In case, Tressa supposes, Therion needed spiritual guidance or something. Maybe Ophilia was just tired.

Thankfully, it doesn't take long. Primrose and Tressa have both clambered over their fair share of roofs, though for different reasons, and it makes the town of Bolderfall easy to navigate. They spot Therion's white hair down an alley, behind a row of dilapidated houses in lower Bolderfall. Carefully, they slip down from the roof and edge into the alley, unseen. Therion is sitting on the ground, facing what looks like a pile of discarded boxes, when he opens his satchel and pulls out a bundled napkin. Tressa clutches Primrose and whispers, "We have to confront him!"

Primrose holds her still.

The entire night is still.

Then, a shadow in the boxes moves. 

At the sight, Tressa can't help herself, not even a little — she clutches her hands together as she tiptoes forward into the meager moonlight.

"Therion!" Tressa says, her voice going higher with every syllable. 

Therion freezes. The cat in front of him arches and hisses at Tressa. Now it's her turn to freeze, and the cat relaxes, a little. It stares at her warily, until Therion slowly sets down the chicken leg, which it starts to devour. Tressa can see that the cat has a wound on its back leg, and a rip in its ear. No wonder it's wary of them. 

"Is this what you've been doing?" Tressa asks.

Primrose follows along with Tressa, edging closer and closer, her hand gently pressed over a smile. "You feed stray cats?"

Therion shrugs, and goes back to watching the cat instead of them. 

"There must be a lot of strays here," Tressa says, thinking of the increasing portion sizes. Therion makes a tiny gesture. A tiny "come closer" gesture. It is the most welcoming he has ever been to Tressa. She moves, then halts and crouches, still a few feet away. 

"Oh," she says. "Oh my goodness ."

"She had kittens since I left," Therion says. Inside one of the discarded crates, in a sort-of nest of crumpled paper, are three kittens, sleeping in a pile. No, four. They're so tangled up and small it's hard to count. Tressa badly wants to cuddle all of them in her arms, but she settles for hugging her arms around herself as she squats. One is gray, like the mother, another is gray and white, and the last two are both striped. Every single little tail is pointy and perfect and Tressa is going to explode with how cute they are.

The cat is still tearing at the chicken. Therion reaches out and gently scratches it behind the ears. It doesn't flinch at his touch, like they know each other. Well, he did live here before, Tressa thinks.

"It's a stupid habit," Therion says. 

Tressa can't take it. She reaches out and squeezes his shoulder. "No, oh my gods, look at them," she says. One of the kittens stretches in its sleep, and all of its paws tremble with the effort before it collapses back into its siblings. "It's the absolute best habit."

**Author's Note:**

> ah bless, therion has a heart
> 
> bonus fact: he named the mama cat in bolderfall sootface because it's got darker gray fur around its nose and eyes, obviously, but just as often he calls it pretty kitty


End file.
